Date: Fri 14-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

GIS-Mapping-Driver

Full Text:

Town Starts To Assemble Data For Its New GIS Mapping System

(with photo)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The town has begun entering digital data in its Geographic Information System

(GIS), a computerized data storage, manipulation and retrieval system intended

to provide enhanced land use planning.

Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO) Executive Director

Jonathan Chew and HVCEO Senior Planner David Hannon met last week with Town

Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver to enter initial data into the town's

GIS system. HVCEO is the regional planning agency for Newtown, Brookfield,

Bethel, Redding, Bridgewater, New Milford, Sherman, New Fairfield, Danbury and

Ridgefield.

The GIS is well-suited for evaluating various land uses and making

presentations on development, Mr Driver said.

In the coming months, a planning intern who is a student at Western

Connecticut State University will be entering data into the town's GIS, he

said.

When the town agencies now temporarily housed in Canaan House at Fairfield

Hills find a permanent home, the town plans to network the GIS system so that

its information will be available to the various town departments at their

respective locations.

GIS mapping includes various "electronic layers" of digitized data which can

be combined, as needed, to provide both electronic and printed maps displaying

information relevant for specific land use planning purposes.

Starting with a base map, electronic layers of information can be added

concerning zoning boundaries, aquifer protection, roads, railroads, brooks,

ponds, wetlands, open space, trails, topography, sewers, electric service,

telephone lines, cable television, state property, tax assessments and other

categories.

Mr Driver said he expects the town will store up to 125 different layers of

information in the local GIS to enhance planning.

"It's going to take a while" to enter all the information in the GIS, he said,

noting it probably will be a three- to four-year process.

The GIS data is information that can be referenced to a map. The system uses

cartographic software known as MapInfo Professional, a relatively easy-to-use

program which runs under the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Variety

In the area of public health, a GIS user could retrieve information on: well

water contamination; septic system failures; the presence of public water

supplies; and the location of sanitary sewers, among other data.

GIS allows towns to keep an inventory of physical improvements and allows

mapping to be continually upgraded.

In a past study, planning consultants who formulated recommendations on

economic development, transportation, and land conservation in the Exit 9 area

of Interstate-84 in Hawleyville, used GIS computer mapping to help refine

their plans.

Also, HVCEO plans to have a "cultural layer" for its regional GIS map,

including the depiction of bus routes, industrial parks, corporate offices,

shopping centers, institutions, schools, condominiums, apartments, municipal

facilities, and open space areas.

The GIS can be used by every department in a municipality which stores

information that can be keyed to geographic locations. Such a geographic

reference is keyed to either a street address or to lines of latitude and

longitude.